Upon persons living in temperate and cold climates this drug does not have any such effect, with reference to the subject matter of dreams, as upon Orientals. Indolent, over-fed, and by reason of their mode of life, religious associations and habits of thought, fancifully imaginative, it is not surprising that they should enjoy, while under the influence of the drug, grotesque, and to them, pleasant, dreams. Did the opium cause dreams foreign to the picture daily conjured by their fertile imaginations, it would indeed be more surprising. That it does not produce such effects on our plain, work-a-day people is not to be wondered at. As I have already said, the preparation of the drug used and the manner of using it in any epoch has been exactly in consonance with the practice of physicians at that time. Of late years physicians are becoming more and more addicted to the subcutaneous use of morphine, and as a consequence, the number of persons who habitually use the drug in this way is daily on the increase. Eight-tenths of those from whom I hear and of those who come to me for treatment are using the drug subcutaneously. Dr. Charles Warrington Earle, of Chicago, in a very able and well written little pamphlet,[2] is of the opinion that the majority of habituès do not use the drug in this way. In reply I can only reassert my opinion just expressed, and must say that the tendency of these patients to falsify, and their delicacy in disclosing their manner of using the drug to the druggists from whom they obtain their supply, must be taken into consideration. Dr. Earle bases his conclusions on 235 cases, the histories of which have chiefly been obtained from druggists. Be it understood, however, that I do not maintain that the majority of opium and morphine takers use the latter drug by the hypodermic syringe. I simply say that in my experience this manner of using the drug is largely on the increase among habituès, and will go on increasing from year to year, in the same manner that morphine is rapidly replacing opium in the practice of physicians. This is well shown by one of Dr. Earle’s carefully prepared tables:— KIND OF NARCOTIC. Morphia was used in 120 cases. Tincture of opium was used in 30 ” Paregoric ” ” 5 ” McMunn’s elixir ” ” 2 ” Gum opium ” ” 50 ” Dover’s powders ” ” 1 ” Unknown ” ” 27 ” --- 235 The age at which this habit is most common is from thirty to forty, both in males and females. The following table, which, as Dr. Earle states, is only approximative, is of interest in this connection:— _Males_—